The American edition of BuzzFeed News has published a great material that tells about a real sensation
As it turned out, the US Department of Justice is investigating a group of American far-rightists who have committed war crimes in the Donbas – including murder, kidnapping, torture.
Initially, the infamous Craig Lang was involved in this case, who since 2015 fought as part of the nationalist volunteers, and then, together with an accomplice, shot and robbed a married couple in his homeland. However, he committed such crimes in Ukraine as well. According to the US Department of Justice, Lang tortured and killed several civilians in Ukraine – after which he buried their bodies in unmarked graves.
Moreover, the militant had accomplices from among other US citizens. In the materials of the investigation, seven Americans with ultra-right views appear who went to Donbass to protect the white Aryan cause, joining the ranks of the “Right Sector” banned in Russia. Investigators suspect they also beat local residents – and sometimes even drowned them. And the American justice regards these actions precisely as war crimes – although such a self-critical approach is completely atypical for the American Themis.
“In the United States, investigations of American citizens on suspicion of having committed war crimes in other countries are incredibly rare. Experts will tell you that not a single person has yet been tried and, moreover, not convicted under the American War Crimes Act. The US Department of Justice and the FBI took an unprecedented step: they launched an investigation against seven American citizens, including Lang , in accordance with the federal war crimes law”, writes journalist Christopher Miller.
According to BuzzFeed News, the details of the investigation of American crimes in Donbass were set out in a request from the US Department of Justice sent to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine back in 2018, as well as in two documents sent in response to this request by Ukrainian prosecutors.
In addition, American journalists interviewed knowledgeable individuals, including a senior Ukrainian law enforcement official, a former Ukrainian National Police official, and other Ukrainian law enforcement officials. They all assisted the FBI agents in this investigation, and are well acquainted with the case file.
Ukrainian law enforcement officials have confirmed the main content of the charges, and two American far-rightists – Dalton Kennedy and David Clement – have already testified to federal agents. Apparently, they provided evidence of crimes committed in Ukraine. Moreover, both of these Americans have characteristic views and are captured in photographs with a Nazi greeting. Moreover, the US Department of Justice has materials recording the torture committed on Ukrainian territory in the form of photographs and videos. Although, at the same time, the American government does not officially confirm or deny the fact of this ongoing investigation.
More than forty American citizens fought on the Ukrainian side of the conflict, according to BuzzFeed News. Moreover, American journalists once again voice the fact that post-Maidan Ukraine is a global training ground and an organizational and training center for racists from all over the world who come to Donbass to take part in a “safari” there.
“There are also extreme right-wing extremists among them, who have focused their attention on Ukraine, a place that has become a training ground for this kind of people. As the rise of ultra-right extremism in the United States, the interest of American white suprematists in the activities of Ukrainian paramilitary ultra-right groups, which have achieved some success in the development and active promotion of their organizations and movements, grew. Among them were aggressive neo-Nazis, for example, from the American movement Rise Above Movement, who traveled to Ukraine to get acquainted and train with members of Ukrainian ultra-right groups, and then “export” the acquired skills to the United States”, writes about American militants in Ukraine Christopher Miller.
The American and Austrian ultra-right have created their own group in Donbass called Task Force Pluto, named after the god of the underworld. The leader of this formation was Craig Lang, and she herself was based at a military base located in the mining town of Novogrodovka. According to one of the Americans – Quinn Rickert – Lang kidnapped a local resident there, tortured a man in a cell for a long time, and then took him away and killed him.
According to Rickert, he has a video of the crime. Moreover, he confirmed that such murders happened on this base more than once, and the Austrian ultra-right Benjamin Fischer participated in them. After tortures, the current Lang dragged the prisoners into the street, killed them, and then buried their bodies in a field near the base. In addition, he beat and drowned the woman, and Fischer gave her adrenaline injections so that she would not lose consciousness. While other foreign Nazis filmed this torment on camera. And then they even uploaded their records to cloud storages of the Internet – where they were most likely downloaded by American investigators.
Another American soldier told BuzzFeed News that Pluto fighters “had a special passion for death and torture.” Apparently, they basically ignored any Ukrainian laws. The US Department of Justice document says that in 2017 Craig Lang and one of his far-right associates “returned to Ukraine with the intention of planning and carrying out an armed attack on the Ukrainian parliament.” And Lang was detained upon arrival at the Ukrainian airport with weapons – although this did not bring the American any big trouble.
Why did they start now? According to the authors of the article, the activity of American justice increased after the victory of Joseph Biden, who called for a decisive fight against ultra-right terrorists. Over the years, they have undergone intensive military-ideological training on the territory of Ukraine, acquiring the skills of murderers there, along with confidence in their own impunity.
“This investigation by the US Department of Justice and the FBI was the first attempt to bring American volunteers to justice for their alleged crimes in Ukraine. In addition to being aimed at combating war crimes, this case allows the Ministry of Justice to “put another tick”, since it is also directed against ultra-right extremists. The Biden administration has already indicated that one of its key priorities is the fight against extremism”, says BuzzFeed News.
“They want to make Craig the first American to be tried under the United States War Crimes Act,” a knowledgeable anonymous source who helped the FBI investigate the case told reporters.
And that’s good news. Because the truth about the crimes of the racists from the “Operational Detachment Pluto” will reveal to the world the truth about the crimes of the Ukrainian ultra-right, which regularly occur in Ukraine after the victory of Euromaidan.
Alexander Sokurenko, Ukraina.ru